Bach - Musicalisches Opfer - 6. Canon A 2 Per Tonos

[silenciosniperion]

reading godel escher bach. xD

[jorgefuentes90]

I am arranging this for solo guitar!! I'll show when finished!

[Modax42]

There is something unsettling about this piece, it's almost creepy. I can't put my finger on it.

[ariallen]

@Modax42 there is no resolution... it goes on "ad infinitum" as people say below... thats why it feels creepy-- like life, it never quite resolves itself completely... every moment merely gives rise to the next, in perpetuity.

[aznmaplemaster]

is that of musical keys.) Sometimes I use the term Tangled Hierarchy to describe a system in which a Strange Loop occurs. As we gon on, the theme of Strange Loops will recur again and again. Sometimes it will be hidden, other times it will be out inteh open; sometimes it will be right side up, other times it will be upside down, or backwards. "Quaerendo in venietis" is my advice to the reader.

--pg.10 Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

--Douglas R. Hofstadter

[semicromapuntata]

i love 'Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'!! it's my favorite book!!

[aznmaplemaster]

on ad infinitum, which is perhaps why he wrote in the margin "As the modulation rises, so may the King's Glory." To emphasize its potentially infinite aspect, i like to call this the "Endlessly Rising Canon".

In this canon, Bach has given us our first example of the notion of Strange Loops. The "Strange Loop" phenomenon occurs whenever, by moving upwards (or downwards) through the levels of some hierarchical system, we unexpectedly find ourselves right back where we started. (Here, the system

[aznmaplemaster]

remote provinces of tonality, so that after several of them, one would expect to be hopelessly far away from the starting key. And yet would magically, after exactly six such modulations, the original key of C minor has been restored! All the voices are exactly one octave higher than they were at the beginning, and here the piece may be broken off in a musically agreeable way. Such, one imagines was Bach's intention; but Bach indubitably also relished the implication that this process could go

[aznmaplemaster]

What makes this canon different from any other, however is that when it concludes-or, rather, seems to conclude-it is no longer in the key of C minor, but now is in D minor. Somehow Bach has contrived to modulate (change keys) right under the listener's nose. And it is so constructed that this 'ending' ties smoothly onto the beginning again; thus one can repeat the process and return in the key of E, only to join again to the beginning. These successive modulations lead the ear to increasingly

[aznmaplemaster]

An " Endless Rising Canon"

There is one canon in the Musical Offering which is particularly unusual. Labeled simply 'Canon per Tonos', it has 3 voices. The uppermost voice sings a variant of the Royal Theme, while underneath it, two voices provide a canonic harmonization based on teh second theme. The lower of this pair sings its theme in C minor (which is the key of the canon as a whole), and the upper of this pair sings the same theme displaced upwards in pitch by an interval of a fifth.

[theromanpraetorian]

why is the bridge a triangle?

[fagottist]

he's playing with a mute

[taouane06]

baxh canons are awesome, bit personlly i prefer fugues

[estiba]

the switch between the tones is unperceivable!

[wcbroccoli]

Only if you have a tin ear.

[raticida123456]

my favorite canon, its incredible